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The Foundation History of the Nuns' Order

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The Foundation History of the Nuns' Order Contents List of Figures 7 Foreword 9 Michael Zimmermann and Steffen Döll Introduction 11 1 Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī in the Nandakovāda 15 1.1 The Introductory Narrative 16 1.2 The Attainments of the Nuns 26 1.3 Narrative Distancing 36 2 Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī’s Petition 39 2.1 The Main Versions of the Foundation History 39 2.2 The Initial Request 43 2.3 The Buddha’s Refusal 49 2.4 Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī’s Reaction 52 3 Ānanda’s Intervention 59 3.1 Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī and Ānanda 59 3.2 Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī’s Gift of a Robe 68 3.3 Arguments Raised by Ānanda 72 3.4 Women’s Potential for Awakening 79 3.5 Ānanda’s Role 85 4 The Buddha’s Permission 91 4.1 The Simile of the Dyke 91 4.2 The Gurudharmas on Communal Transactions 95 4.3 The Gurudharmas on Homage and Criticism 101 5 Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī’s Ordination 117 5.1 The Simile Illustrating Acceptance 117 5.2 Repercussions of Female Renunciation 122 5.3 Apprehensions 133 5.4 Other Instances of Negativity 140 6 Decline 147 6.1 The Prediction of Decline 147 6.2 Outstanding Nuns 151 6.3 The Four Assemblies 155 6.4 The First Saṅgīti 159 Conclusion 179 Translations 183 The Dharmaguptaka Vinaya Version 183 The (Haimavata?) *Vinayamātṛkā Version 189 The Mahāsāṃghika-Lokottaravāda Vinaya Version 191 The Mahīśāsaka Vinaya Version 202 The Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya Version 208 The (Sarvāstivāda) Madhyama-āgama Version 217 The Theravāda Aṅguttara-nikāya Version 228 Abbreviations 235 References 237 Index 271 List of Figures Figure 1: Nuns Facing Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī 27 Figure 2: Petitioning the Buddha 48 Figure 3: Māra’s Daughters 83 Figure 4: Men and Women in a Royal Household 94 Figure 5: The Nun Utpalavarṇā as a Wheel-turning King 138 Figure 6: Outstanding Nuns 154 Foreword About Hamburg Buddhist Studies Ever since the birth of Buddhist Studies in Germany more than 100 years ago, Buddhism has enjoyed a prominent place in the study of Asian reli- gions. The University of Hamburg continues this tradition by focusing research capacities on the religious dimensions of South, Central, and East Asia and making Buddhism a core subject for students of the Asien- Afrika-Institut. The Numata Center for Buddhist Studies is proud to have found a home at one of Europe’s pioneering academic institutions. With its Hamburg Buddhist Studies book series it honours the Univer- sity’s long-standing commitment to research in the field of Buddhist studies and aims to share its results with both the academic community and the wider public. Today, Buddhist Studies as an academic discipline makes use of a broad spectrum of approaches and methods. The field covers contempo- rary issues as much as it delves into the historical aspects of Buddhism. Similarly, the questions shaping the field of Buddhist Studies have broad- ened. Understanding present-day Buddhist phenomena – and how such phenomena are rooted in and informed by a distant past – is not at all an idle scholarly exercise. Rather, it has become clear that fostering the un- derstanding of one of the world’s major religious traditions is a crucial obligation for modern multicultural societies in a globalized world. Accordingly, Hamburg Buddhist Studies addresses Buddhism as one of the great humanistic traditions of philosophical thought, religious praxis, and social life. Its discussions will undoubtedly be of interest to scholars of religious studies and specialists of Buddhism, but also aim at confronting Buddhism’s rich heritage with questions the answers to which might not easily be deduced by the exclusive use of historical and philological research methods. Such issues require the penetrating insight of scholars who approach Buddhism from a broad range of dis- 10 The Foundation History of the Nuns’ Order ciplines, building upon and yet going beyond the solid study of texts and historical evidence. We are convinced that Hamburg Buddhist Studies will contribute to opening up the field to those who may have no training in the classical source languages of the Buddhist traditions but approach the topic against the background of their own disciplinary interests. With this book series, we would like to also encourage a wider audience to take an interest in the academic study of the Buddhist traditions. About this Volume It is our great pleasure to introduce the sixth volume in the Hamburg Buddhist Studies series – a study by Bhikkhu Anālayo, professor at the Asien-Afrika-Institut of the University of Hamburg. This book is a com- panion to his previous works The Genesis of the Bodhisattva Ideal and The Dawn of Abhidharma in the same series. In the present study, he ex- amines the foundation history of the order of Buddhist nuns based on a detailed analysis of canonical accounts in Chinese, Pāli, Sanskrit, and Tibetan. Anālayo shows how the different and at times conflicting parts of the narratives of this particular episode evolved over time to finally consti- tute the foundation history as it is now remembered. By showing where these elements originated and how they have grown to become foundation history, his findings put into perspective the Buddha’s refusal to estab- lish an order of nuns as well as his prediction that women going forth would spell the decline for the whole of the Buddhist tradition. The re- sults of his analyses reflect the potential of comparative studies and the need to pay attention to detail in order to be able to reconstruct the de- velopment of a particular narrative in the course of its transmission. Michael Zimmermann and Steffen Döll Introduction Theme This book proceeds in line with my earlier explorations of the begin- nings of the bodhisattva ideal and of the emergence of the Abhidharma in The Genesis of the Bodhisattva Ideal and The Dawn of Abhidharma in the same Hamburg Buddhist Studies series. Subsequent to these surveys of developments related to the Buddha and the Dharma, in what follows I employ the same historical-critical method of comparative study to examine a development in relation to the Saṃgha, namely the founding of the order of nuns. The canonical accounts of this event are complex testimonies to the multivocality that pervades early Buddhist discourse on women in gen- eral and on nuns (bhikṣuṇīs/bhikkhunīs) in particular.1 My main interest in the next pages is to uncover the different voices that make them- selves heard in these accounts and try to explore how the main elements in the narrative of the Buddha’s founding of an order of nuns gradually came to build up the texts to which we now have access. Work on this topic started ten years ago when preparing a paper for the International Congress on Women’s Role in the Saṅgha, held at the Uni- versity of Hamburg in 2007. In that paper I surveyed basic problems in the foundation history of the order of nuns, summarizing the findings of other scholars in this respect.2 The following year I critically examined theories proposed by other scholars to solve some of these problems, con- ―――――― 1 Sponberg 1992: 3f speaks of a “multiplicity of voices, each expressing a different set of concerns current among the members of the early community” evident in early Bud- dhist discourse on women. 2 This first overview was published three years later as part of the proceedings; cf. Anālayo 2010e. Further research has made me revise aspects of this summary assessment, for which cf. below p. 87 note 103 and p. 99 note 26. 12 The Foundation History of the Nuns’ Order cluding that their failure to provide a satisfactory explanation is in part due to not taking into account all relevant canonical accounts.3 In the intervening years I have explored various aspects of the role of women in general and nuns in particular in early Buddhist canonical texts, in order to gain a clear understanding of narrative strategies that in one way or another also emerge in the foundation history of the order of nuns.4 The present study is divided into six chapters. The first chapter is an introductory case study of negative attitudes towards nuns; the remain- ing five are concerned with the impact of similar attitudes on the foun- dation history itself. In the first chapter I study narrative portions of a discourse that fea- tures Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī and a group of nuns, which reveals differ- ences in attitudes towards nuns evident in the parallel versions. With the second chapter I turn to the foundation history of the order of nuns, beginning with Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī’s petition and her re- sponse to the Buddha’s refusal. Ānanda’s intervention on her behalf and the ensuing discussion is the topic of the third chapter, and in the fourth chapter I study the eight gurudharmas that according to the foundation history were stipulated by the Buddha as the basis for the coming into being of an order of nuns. The acceptance of these eight gurudharmas by Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī and the Buddha’s reaction on being informed of this acceptance are the theme of the fifth chapter. In the sixth chapter I move on to the prediction that the existence of an order of nuns will result in shortening the lifespan of the Buddha’s dispensation, and to the same theme as evident in the accounts of the first saṅgīti. Following my conclusions, I provide translations of the seven main canonical versions of the foundation history of the order of nuns on which my presentation is based.5 ―――――― 3 Anālayo 2008a: 125. 4 Studies that have informed my present exploration of the foundation history of the or- der of nuns are Anālayo 2009a, 2010a, 2011b, 2011c, 2013b, 2014a, 2014d, 2014e, 2014h, 2015b, and 2015e.
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